Oscar-winning Director and screenwriter, Paul Haggis is under house arrest in southern Italy on charges of sexual assault and aggravated personal injury.
A young woman, who has since been identified as a British citizen, has pressed charges against Haggis.
She is accusing the two-time Oscar winner of forcing her to engage in sexual intercourse against her will over the course of three days in Ostuni.
Haggis was in Ostuni where he is scheduled to hold a series of master classes at the Allora Fest — a new film festival launched by L.A.-based Italian journalist Silvia Bizio and Spanish art critic Sol Costales Doulton — that is set to run June 21-26.
Mr Haggis has denied the allegations via his lawyer, Michele Laforgia.
“Make enquiries as soon as possible, I am totally innocent,”he added.
“Mr Paul Haggis was detained on Sunday with an emergency measure issued by the Brindisi prosecutors and is now under house arrest in Ostuni.
“He will be questioned by Thursday by a judge who will have to decide whether or not to confirm the detention,” his Italian lawyer Michele Laforgia told Reuters.
Italy, public prosecutors in Brindisi said in a statement on Sunday.
“Under Italian Law, I cannot discuss the evidence. That said, I am confident that all allegations will be dismissed against Mr. Haggis,” Haggis’ personal attorney Priya Chaudhry said in a statement.
Both lawyers said Haggis was pleading innocent and would cooperate with authorities.
“A young foreign woman was forced to seek medical care” following the sexual relations, the prosecutors said in the statement.
They said that on Sunday after the non-consensual relations that man accompanied the woman to Brindisi airport, where she was left despite her “precarious physical and psychological conditions”.
An investigative source told Reuters the unidentified young woman will be questioned in the coming 10 days in what is known in Italy as an evidentiary incident, setting out evidence for a possible future trial.
Haggis, 69, wrote “Million Dollar Baby” and co-wrote and directed “Crash”, both of which he won an Oscar for.
In 2018 he denied accusations of sexual misconduct made by four women, including two who accused him of rape.
The Allora Fest said they “learned with dismay and shock the news”, adding that the festival’s directors “immediately proceeded to remove any participation of the director from the event”.
